1. Technical Field
The present subject matter relates in general to packet scheduling algorithms and more particularly, to high-performance wireless packet scheduling algorithms.
2. Background Information
In many wireless communication systems (e.g., cellular networks), information, such as data, audio, or video, is exchanged between a base station and one or more mobile stations. Each mobile station may establish a communication channel with the base station for sending and receiving packets of information. Various wireless phenomena, such as fading, shadowing, and interference, may alter the condition of a communication channel and affect the maximum rate of information capable of being transmitted through the communication channel without a transmission error. Collectively, the information transported via the communication channels may represent the total bandwidth of the wireless communication system.
Packet scheduling algorithms may attempt to maximize the utilization of bandwidth by distributing available resources, such as time slots and spreading codes, to communications channels that possess desired channel characteristics, such as a high carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Unfortunately, such packet scheduling algorithms may lead to starvation of the undesired channels, reducing the quality of service (QoS) received by users of these channels. In addition, such algorithms may be computationally intensive, reducing the performance of the packet scheduling process.